Antoine Rozner (-10) is the first leader of the AfrAsia Mauritius Open. Nothing that surprises absolutely anyone. This is the Frenchman’s fourth appearance on the island and the previous three ended with a seventh, a second place and a victory. From Mauritius for life. It was difficult for anyone to catch up with him in the afternoon, especially because the conditions have been considerably more complicated. The wind has not stopped blowing, without it being a gale, but a couple of showers have fallen that hurt. In one of them, in fact, the players had to ask the referees. The answer was: “carry on”.
Despite everything, Paul Waring (-9), a veteran English multi-jobber, capable of saving the European Tour card while combining it with television, has been very close. His 63-stroke card is a very serious thing, mainly because he has not committed any bogey, a titanic task on this Heritage La Reserve course, a wolf in sheep’s clothing where the one who does it pays for it. Only three golfers have handed in immaculate cards. South African Rupert Kaminski (-5) and Frenchman Martin Couvra (-4) have sneaked into Waring’s club. Of the top seven, only two played in the afternoon.
One who was much closer than it seems to get into the top positions is Ángel Hidalgo (+2), the only Spaniard who played in the afternoon in Mauritius. Seeing the result, it may seem an extraordinarily optimistic diagnosis, but it has been so because of the game displayed. Really, the round has gone smoothly, except for two specific moments that have blown up the score.
The first, starting at 10, was on hole 17, par 3. His tee shot ended up in the rough, the second is a hack, the third does not get it out of the rough, the fourth neither and the fifth, yes, was the winner for a total of ‘7’. Quadruple bogey. This is not something any body can resist. The second moment was on the 6th, already heading for the finish line. Short par 4 that is thrown to green. He hesitated between hitting the drive or the 3 wood and opted for the first soft one. He blocked it a bit, it went to the right of the green, not so bad, but the bounce was horrible, it shot further to the right, bounced off the path and ended up out of bounds by half a meter.
In just two moments of the round he has left six strokes. For the same price, and a little more luck, the Malaga-born could have shot a round of 68 strokes today without breaking a sweat. The good thing is that he has taken the blows with gallantry, he has made six bogeys and has signed a more than decent golf. That’s what you have to hold on to when the days are twisted. “I played to make few, but the trend now is this, you have to push forward, try to make as few as possible tomorrow and, if it doesn’t work out, keep training and face it,” he assures.
The provisional cut of the tournament is at two under par, so tomorrow it could well be three less. That is the first objective of Friday. Interestingly, one of those who is just inside the cut is Matthieu Pavon (-2), winner of the Acciona Open of Spain and the only top 100 this week in Mauritius.
